Frustrating times for owners of Torq Resources TSXV:TORQ stock, as shares in the Chile-focused miner hit 60 cents in late July, only to drop again to trade at 37 cents at the close on Friday. It has been a torrid August for the miner, compounding a trajectory that has seen the shares down 50% year to date.
Mining stocks generally are still waiting on a return of sentiment to the market. The macro picture for copper still remains a compelling one. Seasoned mining investors continue to load up on stock in this sector like it’s Christmas come early, but when we will see the turn?
Torq Resources is a Chile-focused copper and gold explorer which is regarded as a leader in some of the prime Chilean mining belts. It also has a first rate team of on the ground local geologists who are able to unpick the complex historical landscape of Chilean mining claims.
Torq is a tough one for investors to continue to hold onto post the July stock rally. I remain a fan and will hold onto the stock for the time being, largely because of two things: the team and the assets.
Torq has the Santa Cecilia gold-copper project which is immediately adjacent to Newmont/Barrick’s Norte Abierto project. It is also actively exploring at Margarita in the Coastal Cordillera belt, and has a third project at Andrea, in the El Indio belt, which it thinks has unrecognised copper porphyry potential.
Secondly, the technical team is noted for its experience on the ground in Chile, and this is what I found most compelling about Torq. A bet on Torq is really a bet on a world class geological team headed up by Michael Henrichsen, but notably with Waldo Cuadra (ex-Shell-Billiton with over 40 years of experience in South America) and Piotr Paleczek (another 40+ year veteran with a long track record in Chile and Argentina). I find it hard to believe a team of this calibre would be wasting its time chasing rainbows.
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Positive news flow with active exploration program
News flow from the company also remains positive. It announced in August that it has launched its third drill program at its Margarita iron-oxide-copper-gold project, which sits in Chile’s Coastal Cordillera belt. The drill program is focusing on extension targets to Torq’s greenfield discovery here at Margarita. This includes intercepts near surface of 90 metres of 0.94% copper and 0.84 g/t gold.
Torq also announced August 2 that it had 557m of 0.38 g/t gold and 0.23% Cu (copper), as well as 56 ppm moybdenum, at its Santa Cecilia gold-copper porphyry target (Maricunga belt, northern Chile). The gold grades encountered in its 23SC-DDH-002 drill hole represent an 81% increase from its previously reported historical intercept.
“We have had high expectations for this project since first seeking to acquire it, and now, with the inaugural drill program, it is already proving its potential to become a world-class gold-copper asset,” said Shawn Wallace, CEO of Torq Resources.
Expansion at Santa Cecilia created a buzz this summer
The market seems to have been most pleased about the rock sampling reported in July from the eastern region of Santa Cecilia, which was previously largely unexplored. This corroborated soil geochemistry targets from the Pircas Norte and Gemelos Norte target areas and will be prioritised for the next phase of drilling. They are demonstrating surface porphyry-style mineralisation where gold-bearing sheeted quartz-magnetite-pyrite veinlets are encountered within dioritic and dacitic porphyry bodies, respectively.
The recognition of outcropping porphyry mineralization at both Pircas Norte and Gemelos Norte, which are adjacent to Newmont and Barrick’s Caspiche deposit, are a significant advancement for Torq. The company views both targets as high priority for its planned drilling in Q4 of this year as they could represent the potential for a discovery, similar in nature to the Caspiche deposit.
